Tom Kee usually plays tennis on clay courts in Florida, but 40 years of membership at the Clock Tower Racquet Club had him ready for hard-court matches at the Florida Senior Games.

Kee beat Earl Maslin of Sebring, Fla., 7-5, 6-3 in the finals Sunday.

“I never won a state title before; I thought that was wonderful,” Kee, a retired teacher who spends half the year living on a farm outside Cherry Valley and the other half in Punta Gorda, Fla., said in a phone interview. “And Florida is a big senior state. We have more seniors than anybody except California.”

Kee took a big early lead.

“I should have done better,” he said. “It was kind of an ugly match. I got ahead and was serving at 5-1 in the first set, but it was a hot, muggy day and we were both dragging a little.

“My serve came back in the second set. That’s what did it.”

Kee, 75, taught at East High School and Flinn Middle School in the 1970s and 1980s. He qualified for state by winning the Charlotte (Fla.) County title on clay courts.

“When I play down here, usually I play on clay,” Kee said. “You come down here to get away from the hard if you could help it. It’s a little more forgiving on your whole body. This was on hard courts (at Three Oaks Tennis Center in Fort Myers), but I play on hard courts six months of the year when I am up north.”

Kee, who plays out of the Cape Coral Racquet Club, has won his county tournament several times before but usually skipped the state senior event. Not this year, not when it was held only 25 miles away at Fort Myers.

“A lot of years I qualified for state it was in Tallahassee,” Kee said. “I’m not going to do that. That’s too far to go. I’m not that enthused.”